Before the game, GM George McPhee discussed the trade-deadline acquisition of the vet­eran on Comcast SportsNet.

“Arnott, [the discussions] really it started that day, and we went all day, and the last call started about five minutes to 3 and went right down to the wire,” McPhee said. “I felt like we really helped our team. We needed another player, we needed a big guy in the middle, and he was the only guy that was available. New Jersey let us know earlier in the day that if he was going anywhere, he was going to us. The player had a no-trade clause and he indicated that he would only go to Washington.”